Revelations 6 and 7- First Six Seals January 29, 2012

SLIDE 1Revelation 6 and 7: The Seven Seals purchased copyright illustrations in PPT Pat Marvenko Smith

SLIDE 2 Before we start I would like to introduce or clarify some terms I will be using in this lecture. These are my opinions after studying several different commentaries and mostly follow the CBS view. My teaching on the Rapture comes from 1 Thessalonians.

·        Church Age-from Christ’s ascension until the Rapture

·        Rapture-When Christ’s returns for His Church

·        Tribulation-Seven Weeks (years) of Daniel- God’s judgment on unbelievers

·        The Day of the LORD- a day when God pours out vengeance on the adversary

SLIDE 3 CBS offered these teaching points. I thought they were witty.

·        Six shocking seals sentence sinners (6:1-17).

·        One single seal saves several saints (7:1-8).

·        Swarms sing songs to the Shepherd (7:9-17).

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Our God of Love is also a God of Judgment

Do forget to read your commentary. Looking back to the Old Testament it compares these chapters to Zechariah and Ezekiel’s warning of judgment.

¹Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, "Come!"

Remember each seal is opened by the worthy Lamb and announced by the four living creatures before the throne discussed in Chapter 4.

²And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.

My first thought was “This is Christ.” Then I thought “Which of these is not like the other?” When we look at his companions, they are permitted to bring pestilence and famine to the earth just as Satan was permitted to test Job.

If the crown was given him, he’s probably not Christ, but a counterfeit of Christ. Remember Satan masquerades as an angel of light. Many will be deceived.

SLIDE 4 David Guzik reminds us Jesus returns on a white horse in Revelation 19:11-16; Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. …He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.

SLIDE 5 A.R. Fausset “For it is the Lamb who has just loosed the first seal sending this horseman out. It violates all logic for the same person to be opening the seal and sending himself forth. If Christ rides forth here, who is it that remains in heaven to open the remaining seals?” To be fair there are other scholars who say this idea is preposterous.

This initial emergence of the antichrist could be connected with what we know about this leader in Daniel 9.

SLIDE 6³When (Christ) opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" ⁴And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

My friends peace is a gift from God. Man left to his own devices will kill and steal and lie. When the peace of God is removed from the earth, wars will break out. God had been patient wanting that none be lost. Our God of Love is also a God of Judgment

Let’s compare Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 24 with these verses of scripture.

SLIDE 7Matthew 24:⁵For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray.⁶And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. ⁷For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,
SLIDE 8 Matthew 24:7 there will be famines, and earthquakes, (and pestilences,)KJV in various places.⁸All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

SLIDE 9⁵ …the third seal… a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. The rider on the black horse will bring famine and scarcity of the basics of life. 6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!"

Walvoord These prices are about twelve times higher than normal. It means that it would cost a day's wage to buy the ingredients for a loaf of bread. This describes "a time of famine and inequity when life will be reduced to the barest necessities." Oil and wine represent the nicer things of life which will be available to those who have the means to purchase.

SLIDE 10⁷…the fourth seal … ⁸ a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth,

·        to kill with sword
·         with famine
·        with pestilence and
·        by wild beasts of the earth.

Our God of Love is also a God of Judgment

SLIDE 11The word “pale” in Greek actually chloros is a sickly green-representing infectious diseases, such as MRSA, C. diff, other blood and airborne diseases.

*Power was given to the horseman by God. Though all destruction breaks loose on the earth, God is very much in control. He still holds the scroll and opens the seals.

SLIDE 12 ⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.

Who are these saints? Who are these souls (martyrs)? Again the answer varies. Dr. Thomas Constable explains: CBS Th

Some believe these martyrs are all Christians who die for their faith during the entire church age, all believers who die from Christ’s ascension to His second coming. The lives of these martyrs were sacrifices as upon an altar to God.

Philippians 2:17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 2 Timothy 4:5

If you believe in the Rapture all Christians living at the time will go directly into Jesus Christ’s presence. These people John described in this verse could be those who come to faith in Christ after the Rapture. They became believers during the first half of the Tribulation and then suffered martyrdom for their faith.

Matthew 24:9 "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.; Luke 21:12 But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake.  

SLIDE 13 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

SLIDE 13 I tend to favor the idea of the Tribulation Saints. When Stephen was martyred in Acts, he ask for God to forgive them just as Christ had done. Grace and mercy are key in the Church age. However God is meeting out judgment during the Tribulation period and it would be just for the Lord to avenge their deaths. Others say it is right to ask God to avenge in our behalf.

¹⁰They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

Our God of Love but is also a God of Judgment

SLIDE 14¹¹Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

David Jeremiah says in his book Agents of the Apocalypse the Lord provides five comforts for these martyred souls.

·        A Refuge ‘under the altar’ to be covered with the blood of Christ justified a place of close communion with God

·        A Robe covering a temporary body since they have not received the new body promised for New Jerusalem

·        Rest Revelation 14:13 rest from their labors

·        Retribution the angel with the sharp sickle mentioned in 14:18-19 will avenge them

·        Reward martyred saints will receive a martyrs crown and be honored to sit on a throne because they did not take the mark of the beast 666 during the Tribulation and during the 1000 year reign of Christ in New Heaven on earth

SLIDE 15 ¹²When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood,¹³and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

Zephaniah 1:14-16  The great day of the LORD is near; it is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; there the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers.

Joel 2:10-11: The sun and moon grow dark, and stars diminish their brightness . . . for the day of the LORD is great and terrible; who can endure it?

SLIDE 16 ¹⁴The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,¹⁶calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,¹⁷for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

SLIDE 16 The sixth seal concludes with a valid question: Who is able to stand? Only the believer can stand before this great judgment, the one who is justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

·         Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. (Romans 5:1-2)

·         I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received and in which you stand. (1 Corinthians 15:1)

·         Testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. (1 Peter 5:12)

The believer can stand in the face of this great wrath of God because Jesus already bore the wrath the believer deserved. We stand justified by faith through GRACE.

Our God of Love is also a God of Judgment

SLIDE 17Rev 7: ¹After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.²Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea,

 SLIDE 18³saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads."

⁴And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: A Great Multitude from Every Nation

Again we are at a place of widely divergent interpretations. While other views exist, the two most prominent are that the 144,000 referred to here are (a) quite literally 144,000 Jews—12,000 from each of the 12 tribes, or (b) a figurative reference to a vast number of saved saints (Christians). In either case, God protects His own. CBS TH

SLIDE 19 ⁹After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,¹⁰and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"¹¹And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,¹²saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

SLIDE 20¹³Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?"¹⁴I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.¹⁵"Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

SLIDE 21¹⁷For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

SLIDE 22 Will you choose to praise God through your trials, trusting God to know what is best?

Harry Ironside wrote, “We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.”

·        Revelation Illustrated Pat Marvenko Smith is a free-lance commercial illustrator and designer whose career has spanned over 25 years.

·        David Guzik is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, having come to serve that congregation in July 2010.For 7 years before that, David was the director of Calvary Chapel Bible College Germany, near Siegen, Germany. 

·        A. R. Fausset, born near Enniskillen, Ireland, Oct. 13, 1821. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1843), was ordered deacon in 1847, and ordained in 1848,  “The Revelation of St. John the Divine,” http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/revelation/revelation-6/revelation-6-2.html

·        Community Bible Study Revelation Teaching Help

·        John F. Walvoord (May 1, 1910 – December 20, 2002), was a Christian theologian, pastor, and president of Dallas Theological Seminary from 1952 to 1986

·        Photo on PPT Copyright © 1998-2014 By Tim Warner, all rights reserved. All materials on Answers in Revelation(except logos and icons) may be freely reproduced and distributed for teaching and study purposes, provided proper credit is given.

·        David Jeremiah in his book Agents of the Apocalypse